Ask the Raiders is a short article I’ll run each week, asking you (the Raiders) something that pertains to your raids/guilds/play style.  I’m looking forward to hearing some of your answers and I hope you can provide me with some valuable insight on how other players take the World we all play in.

So, there you are at the start of the raid.  You get their early.  You’ve read up on the bosses for tonights raid.  You’re ready to grab some badges and loot.  Now, did you forget anything  Think real hard…

WHERE ARE YOUR CONSUMABLES?

If there is one thing that ‘irks’ me more than anything, it’s when people come to Progression Hard Mode content, and they don’t bring food, flasks, or potions.  There is no excuse for not having them.  In 2 hours, I can do my Cooking, Jewelcrafting, and Fishing Daily along with 22 other Daily Quests in Icecrown and make ~300G.  I know some of you are saying ‘Well, I don’t have an extra 2 hours to play’, then perhaps try and make an arrangement with the Guild leader or someone else to perhaps give you a few extra Flasks/Potions/etc.  It’s not fair for 24 other people to show up with consumables and you be the only one without them.

I’m not a Guild or Raid leader, but I do like to make sure everyone is ready, so I use an nifty little addon called RaidBuffStatus.  It monitors all buffs, and determines what people are missing, and which people are capable of giving out those buffs.  My personal favorite (and my guild leader’s most hated) feature is when the RBS whispers players who are missing a food buff before the Fish Feast expires.  This let’s them know that someone is watching and trying to hold them accountable.  This addon also allows me to broadcast to the raid what players are missing which buffs.

I usually just let the slackers slip buy, unless it’s a food buff (there’s no excuse to miss that), so maybe a Mage is missing Gift of the Wild and the lead healer doesn’t have Kings, or maybe the Boomkin only popped 1 elixir instead of two.

Now, here is what I’m asking all of you.  Do you not worry about it?  Do you inform the Raid/Guild leader or officers?  Do you ask the person directly?  Are you one of those people who aren’t fully buffed and don’t worry about it?